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The Journal of the North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt
Volume Four Issue Number Three: May 2016
Menhedj
This MonthDr. Clair OssianARCE North Texas
“Where the Heck is It?” Puzzle
Cyberscribe
Schedule of Events
Menhedj: The Journal of NT-ARCE, Inc. Copyright 2016
Officers and Directors
President/Director Rick Moran [email protected]
Vice President Clair Ossian [email protected]
Secretary/Director Myra Whitlock [email protected] Treasurer/Director Hiram Patterson [email protected]
Director Judy Ford [email protected] Director Susan Patterson [email protected]
Committee Chairs
Crook & Flail
Historian Norma Comer [email protected] Programs
Refreshments Jennifer Danford [email protected]
Web Master Garett Jaeckel [email protected] Publicity
North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt Located in Dallas, Texas
In This Issue
Where the Heck Is This Place? Page 3 By Clair Ossian
President’s Message Page 4
CyberScribe Page 5 By Clair Ossian
Upcoming Events Page 20
Copyright Notice The contents of this publication are copyrighted by their authors and the North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, Inc. unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced,downloaded, disseminated, published or transferred in any form or by any means except with prior written permission of NT-ARCE. Members of NT-ARCE may download pages or content for their own use, consistent with the mission and purpose of NT-ARCE.
May 22Dr. Clair OssianTCC Emeritus
The Egyptian Court of London’s Crystal Palace
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This Month
We are looking for a new Crook & Flail chairperson.
Please contact Rick Moran if you are interested.
Menhedj: The Journal of NT-ARCE, Inc. Copyright 2016
Where The Heck is it? May 2016
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Last Month’s Answer
“The place has quite a few problems," said house flipper Waldo-Hotep, but I’ve seen a lot worse.“ He knew that when he got the air conditioner working, got rid of the old-fashioned wallpaper, upgraded the kitchen and master bathroom, and installed some quality hardwood flooring, he’d have to beat off the potential customers with a stick. It wasn’t often that a property this good opened up so close to downtown Aswan!
Or perhaps you have a different explanation for this scene?1. What do you think is the name for this place?
Tomb of Padeshu at Deir-el-Medina, TT3 (or owned TT326)2. What were the previous owner’s titles and when did he live?
“Servant in the Place of Truth on the west of Thebes”, “Foreman of the Left Side” Stone Mason
19th Dynasty (Ramesses II)3. And what in the world is that odd fellow behind the date palm doing? Drinking water from a pond.
The year is 1835. The French and the Mamelukes have been defeated and Mohammed Ali is firmly on the throne of Egypt. He encouraged European culture, and here we see a group of Bavarian entrepreneurs struggling to install the world’s largest accordion to accompany their omm-pah orchestras. But alas, the dry air and termites ruined the instrument and the Bavarians went home discouraged and out of money.
Or perhaps you have a different explanation for this scene?
1. What is that thing tied to the ropes? 2. What are these guys actually up to? 3. After all their efforts, what did they accomplish that still remains today?
Message from the President
As you may have noticed, our list of officers and Committee chairpersons has changed over the last few months. While the responsibilties of each position are not great, if there are fewer people working, more responsibilites must be taken on by the existing volunteers. While I appreciate the many of you are busy people, so are the people who are currently doing things. If you want the chapter to continue to provide the events you enjoy, please consider pitching in. We could use the help. Please contact a chapter officer if you would like to help.
Don’t have time to be take a position, please consider these other ways to help the chapter:
Sponsor a meeting. the speaker’s honorarium is $300. If you can undewrwrite this yourself, we would appreiciate it. If not, perhaps you can get together with yours friends and jointly sponsor a meeting.
Can’t host a speaker, consider driving the speaker to and from the airport. You get a chance to meet the speaker before anyone else.
Have extra airline miles? Consider donating them to the chapter to help defray the cost of airfare.
Above all, encourage your friends and co-workers to come to one of our meetings.
We are all in this together. Together we can make the chapter work.
Menhedj: The Journal of NT-ARCE, Inc. Copyright 2016
By Dr. Clair Ossian
CyberScribe No. 225, May 2016
NO DOUBT CONCERNED ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF LABOR THAT GOES INTO COLLECTING THE INFORMATION, THE TIME EXPENDED IN ASSEMBLING THE CYBERSCRIBE COLUMN, AND EFFORT OF THE PUBLISHING IT AS THE JOURNAL ‘MENHEDJ’, OUR PRESIDENT, NO DOUBT IN A LOW MOOD, SAID TO THE CYBERSCRIBE “NOBODY READS YOUR COLUMN ANYWAY”.
IS THIS TRUE? IF YOU ARE A READER, PLEASE TAKE A FEW SECONDS AND SEND A NOTE TO [email protected] SAYING THAT YOU ARE A READER AND WISH TO SEE THE CYBERSCRIBE CONTINUE.
IF THERE ARE, IN FACT, FEW OR NO READERS, THE CYBERSCRIBE WILL CEASE PUBLICATION. IT REQUIRES A MINIMUM OF EIGHT HOURS EVERY MONTH TO GIVE YOU THIS
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J O U R N A L , B U T I F I T I S U N W A N T E D , T H E N T H E CYBERSCRIBE WILL RETIRE!
During the last few months, the CyberScribe has referred to the ‘story that would not die’, meaning the story about the supposedly hidden rooms behind the plaster of the walls of king Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. The story was raised originally by Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves on the basis of certain lines in the plaster and the excitement he caused stimulated the Egyptian antiquities ministry to initiate wall scans to test this theory. Every few days now it seems that the Ministry of Antiquities calls some sort of news conference to review the data, and the answer they give is always the same. ‘We don't know if there is a room there or not’. ‘We are still investigating’. ‘We still think there might be a chamber back there’. New specialists are being brought in regularly in an attempt to add their expertise to the solution of this rather interesting problem.
The story isn’t dead yet, but it’s lying on its back and starting to twitch rather feebly. From all reports, the famous Japanese radar expert who declared that there was a door behind the plaster…100% certain…has a setup and data format that no one else can read. Another worker declared that he had ‘seen’ metal, wood and cloth behind the bricked up and hidden doorway…but the tool cannot see anything but metal, and no one else saw any such thing.
So where are we? Reeves is standing firm…sort of. They are bringing in other types of techniques…but the data sets being generated DO NOT SEE ANY DOORWAYS!
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A report made by ‘Live Science’ (http://tinyurl.com/h67hxb9)(condensed for space reasons) stated:
“Radar scans conducted by a National Geographic team have found that there are no hidden chambers in Tutankhamun's tomb, disproving a claim that the secret grave of Queen Nefertiti lurks behind the walls.
“"If we had a void, we should have a strong reflection," Dean Goodman, a geophysicist at GPR-Slice software told National Geographic News, which published a feature on the research. "But it just doesn't exist."
“Live Science contacted Goodman about the research. Goodman said that though he prepared a response, a nondisclosure agreement with the National Geographic Society meant that he needed the society's permission to release that statement.
“The society refused this permission, sending a statement to Live Science, explaining that the society's agreement with Egypt's antiquities ministry prevents it from granting media access.
“Sources contacted by Live Science, however, have confirmed that the scans did not find evidence for a hidden chamber or any sign of Queen Nefertiti's tomb. (Those sources asked to remain anonymous.)
“Scans carried out last year by radar technologist Hirokatsu Watanabe supposedly showed evidence of two hidden chambers, along with metal and organic artifacts. The findings spurred Egypt's antiquities ministry to issue a statement
saying that it was nearly certain that hidden chambers exist in Tutankhamun's tomb.
“However, a new team of researchers supported by the National Geographic Society then conducted a second series of scans.
A radar scan of the west wall of King Tut's tomb. The scan was conducted last year by Japanese radar technologist Hirokatsu Watanabe.Credit: Image courtesy of Egypt Ministry of Antiquities
“Egypt’s antiquities ministry has refused to accept the new results, telling Live Science that it plans more tests to search for a tomb. "Other types of radar and remote-sensing techniques will be applied in the next stage. Once they are determined, we shall publish the updates," the ministry told Live Science in a statement.
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A rather damning set of comments came from another source, ‘Al Ahram’ (http://tinyurl.com/h6ogwqa) (condensed):
“Director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyri in Berlin, Friederike Seyfried, who does not believe that Tutankhamun’s burial chamber conceals any hidden chambers, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the results of the radar survey do not prove the existence of a hidden tomb. She describes Reeves’ claim that the tomb of Nefertiti lies behind the northern wall of the burial chamber as mere hypothesis.
“Seyfried believes that the sudden death of the boy king led the tomb’s builders to finish the tomb quickly and close it up, which is why a cavity was found in the radar scan.
“She also rejected Reeves’ assertion that the scene depicted on the north wall inside the tomb’s burial chamber shows Tutankhamun performing the “opening of the mouth” ritual for Nefertiti’s mummy, saying she doubts that the wall painting was done for a female king, whoever she is. An inscription, she went on, shows that it is in fact King Ay who is performing the ritual for Tutankhamun’s mummy.
““I believe that the ancient Egyptian artist would never make a depiction of the pharaoh without a direct inscription beside the scene,” Seyfried told the Weekly.
“She said she found nothing during her close examination of the 3-D laser-scan images taken by the Spanish Factum Arte on which Reeves based his theory.
“Additionally, at a conference on Tutankhamun held this past weekend at the Grand Egyptian Museum, the researchers who conducted the radar survey were not allowed to present their research. Watanabe and Reeves, in contrast, were able to present their full papers.
“Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, a former minister of antiquities for Egypt, criticized the situation at the conference, urging those in charge to accept that Tutankhamun's tomb simply does not contain a secret chamber. "If there is any masonry or partition wall, the radar signal should show an image," he said, according to National Geographic News. "We don't have this, which means there is nothing there."
“Lawrence Conyers, a professor at the University of Denver who literally wrote the book on the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) in archaeology, said that he would like to read Goodman's scientific report. He added that he is disappointed that it is not being released.
“Conyers said that if ground-penetrating radar shows no hidden chamber, then there likely isn't one. "So, I guess they are going to try other geophysical methods? I am not at all sure what those might be. They used the most obvious one, which is GPR. The others are much less definitive than GPR, so I suspect this is just blowing smoke," Conyers said in an email.
“Reeves, who made the original claim about the hidden rooms, did not return requests for comment.”
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cedar from Lebanon. Remains of her cartonnage mask was found over the face of Sattjeni, The inner coffin was in a very good preservation
“Nasr Salama, Director of Aswan and Nubia Antiquities said that Sattjeni was a key figure in Elephantine, as she was the daughter of the nomarch Sarenput II and, after the death of allthe male members of her family, she was the unique holder of the dynastic rights in the government of Elephantine.”
Some of you will no doubt remember a few months ago when the CyberScribe presented a research project that was trying to examine the interior of pyramids using muons from outer space. The first attempts on the great pyramid of Giza gave interesting and tantalizing results.
The investigators moved over to the Bent Pyramid at Dashur, which has long been suspected of having hidden and undiscovered chambers, and applied their techniques again. The results were spectacular, but there were no surprises such as hidden chambers. The ‘Daily Mail (http://tinyurl.com/h58m92u) presented a rather lengthy and excellent discussion of the process called ‘Muon Rad iog raphy Imag ing ’ and I n f r a red Thermography’, and reviewed the results. The article (condensed somewhat) it appears below:
“Infrared thermography - Infrared detects infrared energy emitted from object, converts it to temperature, and displays an image of its temperature distribution to reveal objects that may be hidden.
““No traces of doorways were noticed on the scenes depicted on the western and northern walls, as Reeves claimed, and the northern wall plaster was not painted with yellow to hide the former scene,” Seyfried pointed out. “If a former white color of the painting had been plastered over in yellow to hide a doorway, as Reeves claims, you would see the traces of a former inscription.””
Is this battle finally over? The CyberScribe rather doubts it. There are too many big egos on the line, so check back here again next month and see what new events have transpired.
A quite brief, but interesting note was issued by the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MFA), the successor to the SCA. It gives a few details of the finding of the mummy of a very important lady in this MFA press release (http://tinyurl.com/no4wptt) (abbreviated somewhat, and language corrected):
“The head of the ancient Egyptian Antiquities Section, Dr. Mahmoud Afifi, announces the discovery of the burial of the mother of two governors of Elephantine. The discovery was made by a Spanish Missionfrom the University of Jaén during their excavation work in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa, West Aswan.
“The Lady was named Sattjeni and was the mother of governors Heqaib III and Amaeny-Seneb, who were the highest authorities of Elephantine under the reign of Amenemhat III, around 1800-1775 BCE.
“Dr. Mahmoud Afifi, explained that the mummy was originally wrapped in linen and deposited in two wooden coffins made of
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“3D scans with lasers - Lasers bounce narrow pulses of light off the interiors of a structure to map it in detail. Once the scanning is complete, the data can be combined into a highly detailed 3-D model.
“Cosmic-ray detectors - This detects muons that are created when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere. Muons pass harmlessly through people and buildings.
“Muons traveling through rock or other dense material will slow and eventually stop. The idea is to catch the muons after they’ve passed through a pyramid and measure their energies and trajectories. Researchers can then compile a 3D image that reveals hidden chambers.
“Mehdi Tayoubi, president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute, said that plates installed inside the pyramid collected data on radiographic particles known as 'muons'. Muons rain down from the Earth's atmosphere. The particles pass through empty spaces but can be absorbed or deflected by harder surfaces. By studying particle accumulations, scientists may learn more about the construction of the pyramid
“It has two entrances, which opens onto two corridors leading to two burial chambers arranged one above the other. Some had suggested pharaoh Sneferu was buried inside the pyramid in a hidden chamber, but the latest scans have ruled out that possibility.
Last week, archaeologists revealed the first results of their work involving the Bent pyramid, 25 miles south of Cairo. The 3D
“The 3D images show the internal chambers of the 4,600-year-old structure, as well as clearly revealing the shape of its second chamber. Located at the royal necropolis of Dahshur, the Bent pyramid was one of the earliest to be built under the Old Kingdom Pharaoh Sneferu.
Egyptian and foreign experts have begun unraveling their mysteries with the help of space particles. The team are using 'cosmic rays' to create maps that show the internal structures of these ancient wonders - and they say they could hold some surprises
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“It is believed to have been ancient Egypt's first attempt to build a smooth-sided pyramid.
“The Scan Pyramids project, which announced in November thermal anomalies in the 4,500 year-old Khufu Pyramid in Giza, is
“'From these plates, more than 10 million of muon tracks were analysed,' Tayoubi, who is also co-director of the ScanPyramids mission told Discovery.
“'We count the muons and according to their angular distribution we are able to reconstruct an image,' Tayoubi said. 'For the first time ever, the internal structure of a p y r a m i d w a s r e v e a l e d w i t h m u o n particles. The images obtained clearly show the second chamber of the pyramid located roughly 60 feet above the lower one in which emulsions plates were installed,' he added.
“'For the construction of the pyramids, there is no single theory that is 100 per cent proven or checked' They are all theories and hypotheses,' said Hany Helal, the institute's vice president. 'What we are trying to do with the new technology, we would like to either confirm or change or upgrade or modify the hypotheses that we have on how the pyramids were constructed,' he said. The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, jus t ou t s ide Ca i ro , i s distinguished by the bent slope of its sides.
The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, just outside Cairo, is distinguished by the bent slope of its sides. It has two entrances, which opens onto two corridors leading to two burial chambers arranged one above the other
Lasers bounce narrow pulses of light off the interiors of a structure to map it in detail. Once the scanning is complete, the data can be combined into a highly detailed 3D model
Muons traveling through rock or other dense material will slow and eventually stop. The idea is to catch the muons after they’ve passed through a pyramid and measure their energies and trajectories. Researchers can then compile a 3D image that reveals hidden chambers
coupling thermal technology with muons analysis to try to unlock secrets to the construction of several other ancient Egyptian pyramids.
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the yield was important because it determine how many people could be adequately fed from that year's harvest.
The article in question appeared in a ‘National Geographic” publication (http://t i n yu r l . c om/z r cmkww) (abb r ev i a t ed somewhat) and here is what the authors have to say about their nilometer discovery:
“Tayoubi said the group plans to start preparations for muons testing in a month in Khufu, the largest of the three Giza pyramids, which is known internationally as Cheops.
“'Even if we find one square meter void somewhere, it will bring new questions and hypotheses and maybe it will help solve the definitive questions,' said Tayoubi.
“The team will also be using infrared 3D scans and lasers to study the two pyramids in Giza and the two in Dashur.”
An interesting discovery was made at the site of the ancient city of Thmuis, near the better known city of Mendes, and the modern city of Mansura. The excavators uncovered the remains of a nilometer, a structure constructed by ancient Egyptians to measure the rise and fall of the water in the Nile River during its flood stage. They make one claim which the CyberScribe finds a little doubtful…that the nilometer was basically a tax figuring device, and was used by the Egyptians to calculate how much tax to place on the land and its crops.
The CyberScribe thinks that their reasoning is a little backwards. Indeed, there would be more harvested grain from a high Nile, which would translate into more material to be taxed, while a poor crop would simply yield less grain and therefore there would be less material for the taxman to assess. It seems unlikely that the Egyptian crown would inflate or deflate the value of grain simply on the basis of how much water came down the Nile any given year.
The farmland itself was certainly taxed, but
“ A m e r i c a n a n d E g y p t i a n archaeologists have discovered a rare structure called a nilometer in the ruins of the ancient city of Thmuis in Egypt’s Delta region. Likely constructed during the third century B.C., the nilometer was used for roughly a thousand years to calculate the water level of the river during the annual flooding of the Nile. Fewer than two dozen of the devices are known to exist.
““Without the river, there was no life in Egypt,” says University of Hawaii archaeologist Jay Silverstein, a member of the team who works at the site where the nilometer was found, near the modern city of El Mansoura. “We suspect it was originally located within a temple complex. They
At the ancient port city of Thmuis is part of a nilometer, a structure used in antiquity to monitor the level of the Nile River. Photograph by Greg Bondar, Tell Timai Project
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would’ve thought of the Nile River as a god, and the nilometer was this point of interface between the spiritual and the pragmatic.”
“Before the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970, the Nile flooded the surrounding plains each year in late July or August. As the waters receded in September and October, they left behind a blanket of fertile silt that was essential for growing crops such as barley and wheat.
“But the volume of the yearly flood varied widely. If the inundation was inadequate, only a small area of cropland would be covered with the life-giving silt, often resulting in famine. If the water level was too high, it would sweep away houses and structures built on the plain and ruin the crops. It’s estimated that the flooding was either inadequate or excessive roughly once every five years during the pharaonic period.
“Made from large limestone blocks, the nilometer was a circular well roughly eight feet (2.4 meters) in diameter with a staircase leading down into its interior. Either a channel would have connected the well to the river, or it would have simply measured the water table as a proxy for the strength of the river. Seven cubits—roughly 10 feet (3.04 meters)—was the optimum height for prosperity.
During the time of the pharaohs, the nilometer was used to compute the levy of taxes, and this was also likely the case during the Hellenistic period,” says Robert Littman, an archaeologist at the University of Hawaii. “If the water level indicated there would be a strong harvest, taxes would be higher.
”“Previous archaeological excavations
have indicated that the ancient city of Mendes was already declining by the fourth century B.C. The rise of Thmuis, located roughly half a kilometer south of ancient Mendes, appears to have arisen to accommodate the changing course of the Nile. Thmuis means “new land” in Egyptian. The discovery of the ancient nilometer confirms the location of the paleochannel of the Nile along the western side of Thmuis.
“Today the Nile has shifted yet again. The largest city in the region is now El Mansoura, situated on the banks of the Nile, while Thmuis has dwindled to a small village.
“The site of the nilometer was likely part of a sacred temple complex where priests used the structure to predict the seasonal floods and farmers left offerings in hopes of winning the river god's favor.
“But traces of the river and its sacred significance linger in the local landscape
Archaeologists believe the nilometer may have been part of a temple complex on the banks of the Nile, which has since changed course. Photograph by Jay Silverstein, Tell Timai Project
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and culture. The water table is still high enough to be accessible, and workmen digging the foundation of a water pumping station discovered the nilometer.”
From time to time there arises a chance to do something useful for the CyberScribe's readers and for a friend as well. A brief article recently appeared in ‘Egypt Today’ (http://tinyurl.com/zafrzte) entitled “The Stones of Ancient Egypt: How Geology Shaped Architecture”.
No one can go to Egypt without being very aware of the impact of stone on the landscape and in the monuments. The Nile valley is carved from a stone escarpment, and everywhere you go in Egypt, all you have to do is look to the right or left and see the high stone walls that define the Nile valley. The monuments of Egypt are also dependent upon various kinds of stone, some carved from within the valley and others from distant quarries and brought in with great labor.
An old friend of the CyberScribe, Bonny Sampsell, has produced a remarkable book entitled “The Geology of Egypt: A Travelers Handbook”. This modest book enables the visitors to Egypt to understand the forces that produce the landscape and these structures that defined ancient Egypt. Although it is a geology work, it is written so that the ordinary reader will be able to use it intelligently. It has proved very useful, and recently the second edition was issued. The CyberScribe has both editions, and both are well thumbed by usage.
“The Geology of Egypt: A Travelers Handbook” by Bonny Sampsell would be a very useful book for any serious traveler to take along on
that trip to Egypt. Here is what the author of the “Stones of Egypt”, Nigel Fletcher-Jones had to say about Egypt, geology, and Bonny Sampsell’s book:
“There are few sights as spectacular as sunrise in the White Desert of Egypt. The early light catches the wind-carved chalk formations and begins to play tricks on the mind. Indeed, some of the shapes are so reminiscent of figures from ancient Egyptian mythology, such as the sphinx, that it lends credence to the theory that these shapes left an indelible print on those nomadic peoples who passed through the emerging Western Desert on their way to found a brilliant civilization along the banks of the Nile.
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“We cannot know, of course, whether this proposed psychological influence is true, but, without a doubt, the different types of rock that can still be seen in Egypt today had an immense influence on the surviving material remains of ancient Egypt. In fact, as Bonnie Sampsell notes in The Geology of Egypt: A Traveler’s Handbook, this impact was far greater in Egypt than elsewhere — including the other great riverine civilizations of Mesopotamia, where building stone was much more of a rarity.
“While very ancient rock strata are exposed in a few places within Egypt, including the first Nile cataract at Aswan, almost everywhere this very hard ‘basement complex’ is overlain by softer sandstone that, in turn, is covered by limestone of various types, which could be utilized for building (while the harder rocks, like granite and basalt, could be used for statues, sarcophagi and smaller objects).
“In this manner, while ancient Egyptian civilization was undoubtedly ‘the gift of the Nile’ in that it grew up in an environment of otherwise extreme aridity, its most remarkable monuments were unquestionably a gift of the sea. For both the sandstone that characterizes the monuments of Upper Egypt and the limestone that characterizes those of Lower Egypt were created when the land was repeatedly inundated by an immense body of water — the Tethys Sea — of which the Mediterranean Sea of today is but a small remnant.
Upper Egypt, Nubian sandstone, the temple of Maharraqa, Lake Nasser.
“Time and time again, over millions of years, the Tethys Sea swept over what was to become Egypt creating deposits that became sandstone and limestone. As the Tethys Sea retreated northwards, more layers of limestone were formed with each inundation, leading to particularly thick deposits in the north of modern Egypt.
“This process of deposition left stone, which naturally split horizontally, and which tended also to weather along vertical channels to form rough blocks — a gift, which was swiftly accepted by ancient Egyptian architects and masons using the basic hand tools available to them.
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“Similarly, while the location of settlements in ancient Egypt was always determined primarily by proximity to the Nile, the proximity of building materials in substantial quantities, or to easy routes into the desert where minerals and other rarer types of stones in smaller quantities could be mined or quarried or traded, was also important.
“Even that most intractable of rocks, granite — formed deep in the earth from molten magma — tended to weather into conveniently sized boulders in Egypt as it approached the surface as a result of the earth’s movements, though this cannot account for all the estimated 45,000 cubic meters of granite which were shipped from Aswan to Memphis in the Old Kingdom, or for the vast amount of granite that was used later in ancient Egyptian history. Much of this must have been painstakingly chipped out using pounders made of dolerite — a hard volcanic rock similar to basalt — as we can see from the trenches surrounding the ‘unfinished obelisk’ at Aswan.
“And so to ancient Memphis and its associated pyramids — for many the most characteristic early buildings of ancient Egyptian civilization — from Dahshur in the south, via Saqqara, Abu Sir and Giza to Abu Rawash in the north. While much has been made of the transportation along the Nile of granite and fine outer stones, in each case what mattered most to architects and builders was the presence of sufficient easily quarried limestone blocks that could form the core building materials. Sometimes the layers of limestone were thin, as at Saqqara, and the blocks were small, and sometimes the layers were thick, as at Giza, and the blocks that could be quarried nearby were of”massive proportions. Each time a new pyramid was to
be built, the site shifted to be in close proximity to a viable quarry.
Lower Egypt, Mokattam formation limestone, the Great Pyramid, Giza Plateau.
“A visit to any of the surviving monumental buildings of ancient Egypt or a day spent in the Egyptian Museum easily demonstrates the mastery with which ancient masons learned to handle stone and provides proof, if further proof were needed, that ancient Egypt truly rocked!”
Just for fun, the CyberScribe decided to put in an interesting article concerning one of the most beautiful materials produced by the ancient Egyptians. This was of course, the dazzling blue pigment called Egyptian Blue. it has been called the first deliberately manufactured complex material in the ancient world. The article below relates some of the modern discovery of this pigment, and the rediscovery of the method required to generate it today. The paper appeared in ‘Chemistry World’ (http://tinyurl.com/hvrene7), written by Paul Brack. He relates:“200 years ago, chemist and inventor Sir Humphry Davy went to the ruins of Titus’ baths in Rome. There, ‘amongst some rubbish, [he] found several large lumps of a deep blue
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frit’. Soon after, Davy found the same material on a pot in Pompeii. He realized that he had rediscovered the material ‘of which the manufacture is said to have been anciently established at Alexandria’, the first synthetic pigment, Egyptian blue. The tale of Egyptian blue’s discovery, ‘disappearance’ and rediscovery is a fascinating one, and illustrates beautifully how art can act as a facilitator for the advancement of chemistry.
the dark ages. Sadly, no Egyptian recipe for the pigment remains, but Vitruvius, a Roman writer in the 1st century BC, stated that sand, copper (from a mineral such as azurite or malachite) and natron (a naturally occurring mixture of sodium compounds, including sodium carbonate) were the ingredients. Modern experiments show that Egyptian blue (chemical formula: CaCuSi4O10) can be obtained by heating these chemicals to 800–900°C with the addition of lime, a calcium-containing material, which must have been present in the ancient method, probably as an impurity in the sand.
“Whether its discovery came about by design or chance, the synthesis of Egyptian b l u e w a s a s e r i o u s l y i m p r e s s i v e accomplishment.
Achieving the necessary temperature control for a successful reaction would have been a major challenge, as indeed would the correct addition of oxygen. Another testament to the skill of Egyptian chemists is the consistency of the pigment throughout history. The composition in artworks such as the mastaba (or tombs) of Mereruka, from the Old Kingdom (~2600–2100 BC), is almost exactly the same as that found in a mummy coffin dating from the Greco-Roman period (~330 BC–AD 400), and there are other examples dated between these two that show similar compositions.
“In an exciting development for chemists and artists, it was reported in 2009 that Egyptian blue shows exceptional luminescence in the near-infrared region. This means that the pigment can be easily detected in a completely non-destructive fashion simply by illuminating ancient works of art with near-infrared radiation.
The blue pigment was first used by Egyptian artist 2600 BC. Today it has possible uses in security inks or for biomedical imaging © Shutterstock
“Let’s start at the beginning. For the ancient Egyptians, blue was a very important color. It was associated with the sky and the river Nile, and thus came to represent the universe, creation and fertility. However, in ancient times, only the earth colors (colors provided by the surface soil) were used as pigments – blue could not be easily obtained by Egyptian artists. Indeed, the only natural source of blue was the rare and expensive mineral lapis lazuli, which was mined in what is now Afghanistan.
“However, at around 2600 BC, Egyptian blue enters the historical record, and use of the pigment gradually spread across the ancient world as far as Mesopotamia and the Roman empire before being apparently lost in
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The luminescence is so strong that the presence of minute amounts of Egyptian blue can be detected even when no blue color is visible to the naked eye. The British Museum was able to use this technique to provide the first proof that the Elgin Marbles had once been painted, finding the pigment on several sculptures from the Parthenon.
“This technique has also been used to detect Egyptian blue in works of art dating to time periods when it was thought the ability to synthesize the pigment had been lost. For example, a group of Danish scientists found Egyptian blue in a painting by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Benvenuto dating from 1524. Understanding how Benvenuto managed to come across a pigment, whose method of manufacture had been ‘lost’ for so long, is a matter for art historians but chemistry has provided them with a tantalizing challenge.“Though this property of luminescence was initially exploited by those interested in the history of art, chemists are now realizing that Egyptian blue could have other important applications. For example, the long luminescence lifetime and the greater penetration depth in human tissue of infrared compared to UV or visible photons raises the possibility of obtaining more detailed and highly resolved biomedical images by using the pigment as an imaging agent. Egyptian blue also represents an attractive alternative to the expensive lanthanide compounds currently used in security inks.
“Artists’ desire to have a more readily available pigment than lapis lazuli led ancient chemists to produce Egyptian blue. Since its rediscovery 200 years ago, the compound’s chemistry has primarily been studied with
respect to its uses in art. However, the discovery that Egyptian blue shows strong near-infrared luminescence, initially taken advantage of for its applications in art history, has opened the way for chemists to exploit its properties in ways its original discoverers could never have imagined.”
CyberScribe has technically gone beyond his word limits this month, so this would be a good spot to stop seeking more ancient Egyptian topics for this month. There are quite a number of additional items we might examine, but there is not enough bandwidth for the CyberScribe to continue.
Let's just add two more graphic items. Read them over and make your own decisions about each of them.And that will be that for this month's journey through a selection of news items on ancient Egypt.
Remember to send me your comments as to whether the CyberScribe should continue or be retired. In either case, thank you for your long and faithful readership.
Remember, if you read it on the Internet…it has to be true!BY THE WAY, if you ever want to read more of an article where it notes that the CyberScribe has abbreviated it, send the CyberScribe a note and he will try to send along the missing information.
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Upcoming Schedule
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June 18, 2016 (Sa) - Nadine Moeller University of Chicago Egyptian Domestic Architecture
August 20, 2016 Molly Limmer The Antiquities Trade
October 21-22, 2016 (F-Sa) - Fall Seminar: Colleen Manassa Darnell: Egyptian Religion.
November 25, 2016 Dr. Donald Redford (Penn State) Topic: TBA
Lectures from our friends at DFW AIA
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